The Vacation
by Will34
Summary: The Animorphs go on a cruise.  Sounds like fun until the Yeerks show up.  Ax goes on his first date!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_A/N: So now I've discovered that the "edit" thing from the Documents page doesn't work. Anyway, I replaced all the chapters with the new, revised versions so there shouldn't be mistakes anymore. Then again, if you're reading chapter 1, and this is your first time reading the story, it shouldn't make any difference to you. Whatever. Just enjoy the story. And please review. Thanks. _

My name is Aximili Esgarrough Isthill. I am an Andalite aristh.

Ever since I arrived on Earth to fight the Yeerk invasion, I've been becoming a smarter warrior. My skills at disguising myself are getting better. I've learned a lot about human culture and their primitive technology. I am now fully capable of passing myself off as a "real live human," as Marco says. Or so I thought.

Last week was one of my worst since coming to this planet. I was at a dance at my human friends' school. Dancing is a very interesting part of human culture. It involves many variations of stepping (with two human legs, of course), in a rhythemic patern to the music. I was unsuccessful at this. But that was not the worst part. The entire dance ended in... disaster. Because of me. Also Cassie had to cut part of my brain out because it had been infested with a Yeerk. And to make matters worse, I had to knock out my Prince, Prince Jake. That is very bad, and is completely against the Andalite code of honor.

My human friends said I needed a vacation.

We got lucky. Jake's family had been planning a cruise to the Carribean for months. They were going to leave as soon as Jake's school ended for the year. Human schools, by the way, have almost a third of the days in their year with no school scheduled. One of the few ways that humans succeed over Andalites.

Luckily for us, Jake's parents had a business meeting in Europe (a continent on Earth. We believe it had been arranged by Jake's brother, Tom. Not because he wanted to. Because he was a Controller.

Controllers are people, humans, Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, and dozens of other species that have a filthy Yeerk slug wrapped around their brain. Controlling them. Ordering their every movement.

The Yeerks are currently the masters of a good majority of all the sentient beings in the galaxy. They come to a planet in their spider-like pool ships and take over. Sometimes it is a secret underground (literally) movement that doesn't stop until every last creature has been infested with a Yeerk. )This is how they are conquering Earth.) Other times the Yeerks do it the hard way. All-out war, in other words. And I regretfully admit that they almost always win. Although we Andalites are doing everything we can to stop them.

Besides being easily- squishable slugs when they don't have a host body, the Yeerks have one weakness. Like every other living thing in the galaxy, they need to eat to live. They must absorb the Kandrona rays either from their homeworld's sun or from the Kandrona machine they have here on Earth. We have once destroyed the Earth-based Kandrona, and though by now it has been replaced, there was a period of time when Yeerks were dying everywhere. It is a very painful death for the Yeerk. And it was evident that Tom's Yeerk did not want to go through that. Apparently there was no Kandrona machine in the Carribean. So he had made very sure that he wasn't going on the cruise. We Animorphs had done exactly the opposite.

Jake's parents still had the tickets. Of course we Animorphs made sure that they went to us. Our plan was for two of us (the ones without tickets to sneak aboard the plane in morph.) I would not be one of them. We had looked online to see which seats were empty on our flight. Two of them were.

How convenient.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

We were riding in a human ground transportation vehicle to a place called "the airport". I had learned that this was a major transportation center, and that every major human city had one. Prince Jake had told me that riding in this ground vehicle would not get us to where we were going fast enough, and I could see why. It was extremely slow. I couldn't believe how humans got around to places. How could they stand being so primitive? Prince Jake had also told me that we would be going to a city called Miami in an airplane. Miami is my favorite human city, because it is such a pleasurable mouth sound to make, unlike other ugly-sounding human cities, such as Boston. "Miami. Miiiiiiiami. Miaaaaaammmmmiiiiii," I said the word over and over as we rode to the airport, much to annoyment of my human friends.

I wondered what this airplane that we would be traveling in was. Tobias had mentioned there would be hundreds of other people traveling in ours, so I assumed it was larger than this ground vehicle. Eventually I asked Prince Jake what an airplane looked like, and he pointed at a very large man-made flying object. I had been looking at them for the past ten minutes but had not realized what they were. I could hear its loud engines and realized that this was like those old flying machines I had learned about in school that actually used a system that displaces large amounts of air to move! "We have these in ancient history museums!" I exclaimed innocently. My human friends seemed highly offended, though.

"Well if you don't like what we got here on planet Earth why don't you just go to Miami in one of your spaceships," said Marco with an expression I have come to know as "ticked off".

"Easy Marco," Jake said. "We want this to be a fun vacation."

Getting onto the plane was harder than I expected. The humans were obviously taking every measure possible to keep unwanted travelers out of the airport. "Terrorists," as Marco called them. Once we got to the "gate," we had to wait an additional 24 ½ minutes to board the airplane. And the airplane itself was filled with rows and rows of seats, all stacked right behind the other. There was barely any room to stand, let alone run. We Andalites like wide, open spaces. Our interplanetary spaceships are built with a huge dome, over a half-mile across, to give us lots of space. Humans obviously did not think the same way as Andalites in this retrospect.

After about the first 10 minutes, I began to get what humans call "claustrophobia". I stared out the windows and looked at the passing clouds of Earth's atmosphere. After a while I got bored, so I decided to ask Tobias what this cruise ship we would be going on would be like and how I should react. Tobias laughed and said, "Well if you want to learn more about human culture, this is one of the best ways to do it. I've never been on a cruise myself, so I don't know exactly what it's like, but I do know that you should try hard to act like a convincing human. If the cruise people decide you belong in the nuthouse, that's okay, because it's not like they can throw you overboard or anything, and we know there's not going to be any Yeerks, because of Tom, so this'll be good practice for you."

I nodded; this made sense. Then I got up and walked to the bathroom to demorph.

The Anirmophs' biggest weakness is the two hour time limit that comes with Andalite morphing technology. Stay in a morph for more than two hours, and you're trapped in that morph forever. this had happened to Tobias, although he does have morphing power, thanks to the Ellimist. He chooses to remain a hawk so he can keep his morphing power. I had been in morph since we had left for the airport, so I had to go the bathroom (yes, humans have these on airplanes) to demorph and then morph back into human.

I walked to the bathroom, entered it, and locked the door successfully. Only then did I realize that the size of the bathroom was not in conjunction with my plans. My Andalite body would not fit.

I had to do something. The plane wouldn't be landing for almost two hours. I had twenty minutes left in this morph. And there was no way I would let myself be trapped as a human. Although I do love the mazing human sense of taste and making mouth sounds. My only hope was to try to put my hind legs on the toilet and bend my knees as much as I could while morphing.

I got down and put my feet on the toilet and my hands on the floor. I was hoping to curl my tail between my legs and hold it there until I morphed back to to human. This would be difficult because of the razor-sharp scythe blade on the end of it. I commanded myself to stop thinking about it and start morphing, like a real Andalite warrior. This would be the ultimate test to my morphing abilities!

I started with my front end. There was a mirror right in front of me. Morphing is not a very pleasant experience. Watching yourself morph is even less so. The first thing that happened was my head turned blue. Then a pair of stalk eyes began to rise out of my head. Blue fur started growing all over my body, and my feet turned to hooves. And then I remembered that I had forgotten to take off my shoes before I started morphing! I heard a strange sound as my artificial human hooves stretched and broke. Then my hindquarters were pressed to the wall and my face was on the floor. I had to step off the toilet. As I did so, one of my hooves came down on the sink with a loud clang. My stalk eyes were not fully functional yet, so I could not have seen where my back legs were stepping. I struggled to get a better grip, but doing that pushed my hoof completely off the sink, so my whole leg was stretched over it! I flipped onto my side and fell on the floor with a loud thump. It was extremely painful. "Aaah!" I screamed with my quickly-disappearing human mouth.

"Are you okay in there?" someone outside the bathroom asked.

I couldn't answer because my mouth had just disappeared. Then the worst part started: my tail. What had just been a stump a few seconds before suddenly grew out to become a full-fledged Andalite tail. I struggled to bend it upwards toward the ceiling at an awkward angle, because that was the only way it would fit. I was successful at this for a few seconds, but then my scythe blade began to grow out of it. I stopped the morph because I know there was no room for the blade to grow, but I couldn't hold this position for long. I had to work out a plan of what to do next.

I could hear commotion outside the bathroom. A flight attendant was knocking on my door and asking if everything was all right. I had learned what a flight attendant was earlier. Humans, being humans, couldn't just sit in a seat for a few hours contently. No, they have to have servants running around, tending t their every whim. The flight attendants also explained the emergency safety procedures before we took off. I didn't wee how any of them could possibly work and apparently the rest of the passengers agreed with me, as none of them were paying the slightest attention to anything the flight attendant was saying. Later in the flight, I had mistaken one of the flight attendants for a Controller when she looked me in the eye and said, "Are you enjoying your flight?" I had believed her expression was insincere, so I attempted to punch her in the face, but Prince Jake had stopped me. Later he told me she _was_ insincere, which only added to my confusion.

Before I had time to speculate on my unpleasant position, a human yelled, "There's a terrorist in there!"

This was not good, because I knew that whatever a terrorist was , I did not want to be mistaken for one. I heard footsteps running towards my bathroom, and then a human gun being cocked. "This is the captain of the plane. Come out with your hands up or we'll shoot."

I had heard this sentence many times in human entertainments movies I had seen. Sometimes the person holding the gun meant what he said. Other times he didn't. Sometimes he wasn't even holding a gun. Either way, I knew I could not let him see me as an Andalite no matter what. If the captain of the plane was a Controller, I would have half a second to live. If he wasn't a Controller, I may have had multiple seconds. So I quickly resumed morphing and finished my tail blade. And there was a very sharp weapon protruding from the bathroom wall.

I had assumed all the passengers in the plane would be staring the my bathroom by now, but luckily I was wrong, judging from the fact that there were no screams of terror issuing from the side of the bathroom with the blade sticking out of it. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I began morphing back into a human, despite my fatigue from my last morph. I could hear Rachel outside yelling about here sick friend, who occasionally has spasms when flying at 35,000 feet. She was buying time for me to complete my morph.

I morphed as fast as I could. But I still had an extra pair of eyeballs and two stub legs when I heard the captain say, "That's it, I'm getting to the bottom of this once and for all." And I heard keys jingling as he took them out. Then I heard a thump on the door as Rachel threw herself in his way. She said, "My friend will become very angry if you intrude upon her privacy and might sue you."

The captain relented. "All right, I'll give you two minutes, and you'd better be finished with whatever the hell you're doing in there!"

I flushed the toilet as he opened the door. The captain of the planes aw a teenager with a very oddly shaped head, an abnormally small mouth, and blue hair, dressed only in underpants, which was all I had been able to morph. The captain's face registered shock and disgust as his eyes traveled from me to the broken sink, to the huge crack in the wall. Marco had supplied me with a a line that he had guaranteed would fool even the most suspicious attackers. "WHAT THE FUCK?!" the captain yelled. I was not sure if this was a statement or a question, so I recited, "Hey, I had a bad burrito yesterday." I don't know what they did to-"

The captain just slammed the door in disgust.

Rachel and Cassie soon arrived with blankets the flight attendant had given them. They made a crude form of human clothing out of them and told me to wear it. Then the three of us exited the bathroom and made our way down the aisle back to our seats. I felt the eyes of everyone around us drilling into our backs. I don't know what they were thinking. But it would have looked very suspicious for any Yeerk who happened to see us.


	3. Chapter 3

We arrived in Miami. I had to be checked over by a security guard to make sure I wasn't a "terrorist", as soon as I got off the plane, but other than that, things went pretty smoothly since my morphing accident on the plane. We hurried out of the airport and got into another ground transportation vehicle called a "taxi". During the ride in the taxi, the driver had human music on, which I enjoyed. Marco told me it was called "raggae" and it originated in one of the islands on our cruise were was visiting called Jamaica. We drove for a few minutes towards what appeared to be a large human city, much bigger than the one my human friends live in. The sun was setting as we drove into our hotel. We would rent a couple of room there and spend the night. Rachel and Cassie got one room, and Marco, Prince Jake, and I got the other. Tobias would sleep outside, since he is a bird. Our cruise would leave the next day at 3:00.

We walked across the street to a restaurant called Burger King, which served more delicious human foods called burgers, fries, and coke (which Jake would not allow me to taste). All of which my human friends considered to be extremely unhealthy but cheap. Then we went back to our room and watched the Red Sox win the World Series.

We were woken up by the telephone in our room. My human friends yawned and complained about their lack of sleep (even though they had gotten ten hours of sleep that night). I don't know why humans are always surprised by the time they get up every day, but apparently this is normal for most humans.

After we were all dressed properly in our artificial skins, we headed down the elevator and emerged into the lobby, which is a room in hotels where humans sit around and do nothing. I was glad we were going on a cruise instead. We walked through the lobby and went into a room with a few tables and a counter with a coffeemaker (which some humans use to wake up instead of alarm clocks and telephones), a juice dispenser, some donuts, and a basket of apples and oranges. Continental breakfast, as my human friends called it. I tried a cup of the coffee. It was incredible! The flavor was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. I wanted more, more! I filled my cup again and again. The excitment was building. I felt incredibly energized. Now I know exactly why Marco had told me this was how humans wake up in the morning. Then I noticed Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Marco, and Tobias all staring at me. "Uh, Ax, maybe coffee isn't the best thing for you," Jake said. I realized that in my frenzy fo the beverage, I had drunk six cups of it, soaked my shirt with it, and accidentally tiiped over the coffee maker (perhaps an even more wonderful device than the oven that makes cinnamon buns), causing coffee to spill all over the counter and soaking the donuts. I carefully placed my cup in the trash can and started eating a donut, smiling at my human friends. A couple minutes later were kicked out of the room with the breakfast by an angry hotel employee.

The people in the lobby were giving us suspicious looks looks, and nobody looked like they wanted us to be there, so we headed out the door. We walked a few blocks to a bike store, and we rented bicycles. We rode for a couple hours along the beach. Marco made some comments about me checking out the girls who were lying on the beach. My human friends laughed, and Marco said that if I wanted, he could help make me a hot girl magnet on the cruise.

Just when my legs were starting to get tired, we turned onto a bridge and arrived at the dock. Our ship loomed in front of us. It was a huge white metal hulk, but its design was so beautiful and clever. If it was as cramped as the plane we had come on to Miami, it would fit millions of humans, but my friends assured me it would be much more spacious. There was a sign in front f the gangplank that said that boarding would begin in an hour and a half. We rode over to a couple of picnic benches and ate the sandwiches we had packed. Then we walked along the docks for a while, looking at all the ships moored there. One of them was a cruise ship that was even bigger than ours. The dock started to fill up with humans very quickly. We walked back to our ship. The dock had become very noisy. There were people selling brown bread with salt on it. I bought one and shoved it all down my throat at once, and suddenly I could not breathe. Marco dragged me behind a concrete column and stood behind me while wrapping his arms around me and forcefully pressing against me. I coughed and then I could breathe again. Meanwhile, a bunch of humans had gathered around us. I heard murmuring, and heard the word "gay" a few times. "Ax, don't do that anymore! You're gonna hurt yourself. Don't do that then come to yellin :'Ay!Me duele el estomgo!'"

"Yes, Marco. Ko," i said sheepishly. We waited for a long time before finally stepping onto the boat. It was very strange and exciting to see that the inside of the boat resembled so many buildings I've seen. We had separate rooms like in the hotel. Rachel and Cassie shared the room next to ours. There were four beds in our room. Prince Jake slept on the bed in the back, and Tobias had the bed on the other side of the room for whatever he wanted to use it for. Marco pulled down two beds off the wall. He slept on the one above Prince Jake, and I slept on the one above Tobias.

After we had unloaded our luggage in our room, we went our separate ways. I wandered around the ship for a while; exploring the different decks. When I reached the top deck, it was dark but I could not find Prince Jake or the others. I wandered towards a group of humans around a swimming pool. There was loud music playing, many humans yelling and having fun, and various pool objects flying everywhere. Suddenly I saw something flying at my head! I was under attack! "Aaah!" I cried and put up my arms in an effort to defend myself. The ball bounced off my head and fell on the floor. Then a girl ran up to me and laughed. She picked up the ball and said, "Come join the fun, silly!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the pool. At first I was reluctant, afraid that she was a Controller and was trying to get my infested, but then I saw Marco waving at me and grinning and I realized that this was one of those "chicks" that Marco had told me about. When we got to the pool, we were joined by a group of other girls who helped me pull off my shirt. Then they pushed me in the pool, laughing. All the girls jumped in a circle around me, giggling. The one who had seen me first asked, "So what's your name?"

"My name is Ax," I replied. I silently berated myself. Ax was definitely not a believable human name. It is a nickname for my Andalite name, Aximili.

The girls giggled again. "Well, hi... Ax," she said. "My name's Chelsea."

Suddenly, more flying objects. "Crab puffs for all!" someone yelled. I reached up hand and caught one. I put it i my mouth, but before my taste buds could fully register its taste, my head was pushed underwater. "Hey, let's try to dunk Ax!" Chelsea yelled.

I was confused. "Now why would you-" I was suddenly interrupted by a beach ball and another crab puff, both of which simultaneously hit me in the face. Then I saw the girls coming toward me! I quickly swam away from them, but they were faster! "AAAH!" I screamed in terror. Chelsea laughed so hard she had to stop. Then, somewhere I heard Marco yelling, "Everybody get Ax!" and pointed at me.

I had a lot of fun at the pool, but I cannot understand how it ended. Once we were back in our room, I told Marco what Chelsea had told me before she left. "WHAAT?!" Marco exploded. "She said WHAAAT?! Oh no, no, this is very bad."

"What?" said Jake as he walked through the door.

"Some girl at the pool said 'Ax, I want to know more about you. You're such an interesting person. You wanna meet me at the Gavroche tomorrow and just... talk?' "

"Oh you're right, the Yeerks might discover there's an Andalite on board if Ax goes on a date at the Gavroche ," Jake said worriedly.

"NO!!" Marco exploded again. "Ax got asked out by the same girl that said 'Oh, guys like you... I'll see ya later, Marco' when I asked _her_ out! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I may be loses my touch to... Ax!" he wrinkled his nose at me.

"Oh Marco," Jake laughed. "Just because you got beaten out by Ax to the hottest chick on the ship doesn't mean you have to get all jealous..."

"That does it, this has to stop!" Marco yelled. "We'll just let Chelsea see tomorrow who's the cooler guy, me, or _Ax_." He paused. "Ax, this is a one time shot, so don't act like a total weirdo in front of Chelsea. I'll guarantee both of you Chelsea'll have a different boyfriend before goes to bed tomorrow. And it had better be me," he grumbled.

As we got into bed, Jake gave me a smile and whispered "Don't worry about it," to reassure me.

Oh I was definitely worried.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jake and I spent much of the next day practicing for my date with Chelsea, since Marco refused to help me ("if you think you're so cool you should be able to handle Chelsea by yourself!"). Jake suggested that I make some sort of gift for Chelsea to give her that evening. Marco couldn't help not edging in his comment "PLEASE do not give her flowers," and Jake agreed. He wasn't sure what I should give her, but he did say that it should "come from the heart", which is a human cliché I already knew about. So I made up my mind to give her something that really was a part of me, and something she would remember me by. Although I knew she probably wouldn't know what it meant, I made a little sculpture of an Andalite with clay they had in the Teen room. I spent a lot of time making it very detailed and beautiful so Chelsea would know I cared about her.

By the time I gathered up enough courage to walk all by myself up to the dining room, I was four minutes late. Chelsea arrived at the same time I did. A waiter (which are like flight attendants) greeted us. He led us to a table in the Venetian dining room closest to the windows. Then the waiter gave us a menu with a list of all the delicious foods at the restaurant and asked what we wanted to drink. Chelsea ordered a Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, which she told me was a fancy champagne. Jake had warned me about this drink, so I just ordered water. I let Chelsea order my food for me since I had no idea what most of the foods were and she had been to this restaurant before.

After the waiter left I glanced over through the window and saw the heavily rocking ocean waves below us, and felt rather sick.  
"Are you okay, Aximili?" I looked back up at her and smiled.  
"I am fine, Chelsea." I decided it was time to give Chelsea my present. I took my Andalite sculpture and placed it on the table, saying, "Here a gift I made for you."

She picked it up and looked at it. I could not tell what the expression on her face meant, but I hoped she wasn't disappointed. "Hey, it's a blue horse with a... scythe blade on the tail. And antennae. Wow Ax, this is so creative, did you just make it up yourself?"

Obviously Chelsea wasn't a controller, then. Excellent. "Um yeah, it just reminds me of something," I said.

"Well I'm going to keep it forever. It's really pretty."

The waiter arrived with our drinks. Chelsea sipped her champagne and stared at me over the top of her glass. I asked what it tasted like and she offered to let me try it, but I couldn't let myself go crazy with the champagne like I had with the coffee. "Is this your first time on a cruise?" I asked Chelsea.

"Yeah, but I got on the ship in Savannah, so I've been on this cruise a few days longer than you."

She looked out the window for a few seconds. "So am I your favorite cruise date so far Ax? I'm sure that someone as cute as you doesn't have any trouble getting dates with all the hottest chicks," she said, eyeing my shirt that Marco had given me. I was finally beginning to understand what it meant. Chelsea batted her eyelashes at me.

"Chelsea, you are the first, uh-" I refrained from saying 'human'- "chick I have ever dated. So forgive me if I do not follow your customs exactly as you would expect me to."

"Oh are you a foreigner?" Chelsea asked.

"Um, uh..." I did not think this was a good thing, but I didn't know what to say. I looked around uneasily.

"Oh that's okay Ax. I think I noticed that you did a slight accent, maybe European..." she gazed at me thoughtfully. "Where are you from?"

I did not know the names of any human countries besides the one I had been living in for the past few years, the United States, so this was a tough question. "Oh, I'm from, um... uh... Duuuh..." I muttered something incomprehensible.

"Duh?"

"Uuuh..."

"De?"

"Deeeuuuh..."

"Deh... Deeeeh... Denmark?"

"Um, yes, that is where I am from."

"Oh that's so cool Ax. Do you speak any Danish?"

"Um, well... my family moved to America when I was very young so I forgot most of it."

"We studied Denmark in school. We learned about the German invasion and all that stuff."

_Invasion?_ I thought. Was she referring to the Yeerk invasion?

"So were your grandparents there during World War II?"

I had no idea what she was talking about. "Yes, but they moved during the war. They didn't like all the uh... violence..." I said, hoping she would change the subject.

"Oh were they Jewish?"

"Um, yes. Yes they were."

"Oh, wow. I'm glad they were able to escape."

She patted my hand. "I know you probably don't like talking about this. I hope you're not sad now..."

I tried to look as sad as I could.

"Well I know something that'll cheer you up. How about we go out to the movies after dinner? I think they're showing the Xmen tonight in "Movies Under the Stars."

I said I'd never seen it before and I'd love to.

Our food arrived a few minutes later. I had never had any of it before, and most of it was delicious. Chelsea told me French food was her favorite, but she didn't get to go to French restaurants very much because they are very expensive.

We finished the meal quickly, then Chelsea led me to an elevator and we went up to the top deck. We walked past the pool where me and Chelsea had met the night before. Behind it was a giant movie screen and many rows of cushioned deck chairs. Chelsea and I made our way to the front row and sat down in the middle. "Ladies and gentlemen, the movie is about to start," someone said on the loudspeaker. The seats quickly began to fill up with humans and a few minutes later, the movie started. It looked much more exciting than the other movie I'd seen in a human theater, Star Trek. "This is my favorite movie," Chelsea whispered to me.

I noticed she was shivering so I put my arm around her shoulders. She smiled at me and we watched the Xmen.

About halfway through the movie, Chelsea fell asleep and rested her head on my shoulder. Then later, at around a quarter to midnight, when Magnito broke off a section of the Golden Gate Bridge and began the usual evil villain victory rant, (Chelsea must have woken up) she leaned her head towards me and opened her mouth slightly. "Ax, somehow you remind me of them. The Xmen. I don't know why, you just do. Something about you..."

"Chelsea, you are my best girlfriend ever." (Jake had advised me to say that, I thought this was the right time.)

"Really? Cause I think you're my best _boyfriend_ ever." Chelsea grinned. Then she puckered her mouth and leaned towards my face. I got very scared; Prince Jake had told me not to attempt a kiss with a real human. I started panicking, so I pulled away from her. "Um, Chelsea..."

"What, Ax!" She seemed taken aback. I feared I had hurt her feelings.

"I- I'm not sure what... how..." I was at a loss for words.

"It's okay Ax. Just... relax. Do what I do," and with that she put her lips against mine and kissed me.

Kissing a real human was incredible. Kissing Estrid before had been an unforgettable experience, but this was beyond anything I had ever experienced before. I didn't want it to end, so I kept the kiss until we both came up for air.

"Wow, Ax. You really are the best kisser I've met."

"Thank you Chelsea. We should do that again sometime."

"How about now?"

She pressed her lips to mine once again. My single human heart began to race, and small bumps broke out up and down my arms. I pressed back, tightening my arms around her. It was very nerve-racking, the sudden feeling of not being able to breath, although I enjoyed it the same. Chelsea pulled back shortly after, leaving me to feel relieved of being able to breath again. Suddenly, another cliché popped into my mind. I kissed Chelsea once more. "I love, love-uh you, Chelsea." She smiled and we did it again. And again, and again.

When the movie was over we walked back to Chelsea's room and stopped in front of the door. "Ax, that was one of the best dates I've ever been on. I really wasn't kidding when I said you were my best boyfriend ever."

"Neither was I."

"Well then, I guess it's goodbye for now."

"Yes. Goodbye, Chelsea."

And we both stood there sort of smiling at each other at each other. I took a step back from her, but before I could go she stepped towards me, put her arms on my shoulders, and kissed me deeply. I closed my eyes, suddenly "stepping" into an almost dreamy haze of pleasure. When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting next to Chelsea on her bed. Suddenly, our kiss was interrupted by the sound of the human "Souljaboy's" "Crank Dat" song, coming from the cell phone I had borrowed from Cassie. (Marco had insisted that Chelsea at least know that I knew how to choose a cool ringtone, which he had put on the cellphone for me.)

" Please excuse me, Chelsea." I broke away from her, and answered the primitive communication device. "Hello?… Yes, this is Aximili speaking. Oh, hello, Marco. Sup?"  
"Um… Don't say that again, Ax. Where the hell are you? We've been waiting for you for two hours." Marco said through the phone.  
"I am with Chelsea. We viewed a motion picture, and now we are in front of her cabin."  
"What are you doing?"  
I did not want to say what I was about to say in front of Chelsea, so I directed my thought-speak into the phone, so only Marco could hear it.  
((We are kissing, Marco. You interrupted.))  
"Damn!"  
((Marco, why are you yelling?))  
"I'm guess I'm just jealous, that's all."  
((All right. Marco, I wish to continue, now. Goodbye.))  
"Wait! Ax. Just promise me one thing, okay?"  
((Yes?))  
"Just don't bang Chelsea… Please… Jake will kill you…"  
((Please translate the word "bang".))  
"Don't… mate with her, Ax. Please. Just, don't."  
((Shut up, Marco.)) "Goodbye," I used my human mouth again.

"Wait!" Marco said just before I terminated the call. "Jake wants you back here, _now_. I think it's important."

"Okay Marco. I'm coming."

"You have to go?" Chelsea asked.  
"Yes, Prince Jake has to tell me something."

"Right now?"

"Um, yes..."

"Well I guess it's bye for now. Hey, do you wanna go rock climbing with me on Sunday night? I've never been rock climbing on a cruise ship before, but I hear it's really fun."

"Sure, Chelsea." I had gone rock climbing with the Animorphs before, and I had enjoyed it. I had had no idea that they had it on a cruise ship, though. "I will see you on Sunday." I started walking away.

"Bye Ax," Chelsea waved to me, and I waved back.

When I got back to our room, I discovered the Animorphs were having a meeting there. They were all sitting on the edge of the beds with grim faces, like they had just learned something dreadful.

"Finally, Ax is here," Rachel said.

"Alright Ax, we've just discovered some bad news," Jake said.

"What?" I asked worriedly.

"Visser Three is on this ship."


End file.
